Monday, August 25, 2014

WiP Sneak Peek

Five Parts Dead

When Tim Pegler (whose 2010 novel Five Parts Dead remains a
favourite of mine) tagged me to share 7 lines from page 7 or 77 of my current
WiP, I was keen to see what snippet I would find. Little did I know it was
really a challenge – a dare to see if I was brave enough.

I should have known it wasn’t going to be as easy as it
first sounded. Especially after I read Tim’s post about how when he counted out the lines, he had to wrestle with writerly
scruples because he wasn’t happy with what he found there.

The power of the force urging an edit is strong in this one
too. But then I decided that although editing never ends - same thing, fifty
times over, fifty times better - it’s got to start somewhere.

So I bit the bullet and am baring the lines, as is, bleached
bones and all. I am working on two manuscripts.

Here is the YA (page 77):

The mist dissolved and the shadow
grew thin ephemeral arms, legs and wings. It perched on the sea wall like a
pale goblin.

Rebekah could see it was not a
ghost. Ollie was right about that but it wasn’t an illusion either. It was
something old and dark, dangerous and uncertain.

“I have to go."

“Will you come back?” it asked.

She knew she shouldn't.

And here is the Middle Grade (page 7)

He sat on his rock as the sun rose and watched the sugar ants
counting. Burroc liked to listen to them
work. Numbers flew in all directions.
The short chubby one was counting children, three others were counting
food and one was counting the counters.

“How many?” Burroc asked.

“Shhh,” chorused the ants.

“I lost count,” a little one wailed.

And so to share - I tag the following fabulous writerous
types - Richard Newsome (The Billionaire series), Aleesah Darlison (Ash Rover
series, Unicorn Riders series) , Alison Reynolds (A Year with Marmalade, A New
Friend for Marmalade) and Jackie Hosking (The Croc and the Platypus). I’m looking forward to peeking into their
WiPs.